A woman has told how she walked away unscathed from her badly damaged car after a tree came crashing through its roof in a city street.

Carol Arnold, 42, was talking on her phone while parked in Lawson Road, off Sprowston Road, when the tree was brought down by high winds.

The mother-of-two, from Hellesdon, was not harmed but said she was still suffering from trauma following the accident on Monday lunchtime.

She said: 'I was out on my lunch break and talking on the phone when it happened.

'I just said in a bit of a shocked voice 'there's a tree on my car, help'. But some people passing by were very lovely and helped me to get out of the car, took me to the doctors' surgery across the road and they got me a cup of tea and calmed me down.'

Ms Arnold, who works as a sales adviser, added: 'I'm suffering from trauma.'

Her Ford Ka has been written off following the accident outside the Magdalen Medical Practice at 1.35pm.

She said: 'I'd only had it for just over a year, but it was a brilliant little car. There were only 55,000 miles on the clock, �40 of petrol in the tank and it had just got a new MoT, so I'm really gutted.'

One fire crew from Sprowston attended to make the scene safe, with police and council officers also called to clear the tree away and recover the car.

Strong winds caused similar problems across Norfolk on Monday afternoon, with gusts as high as 49 knots, around 55mph, measured at Weybourne on the north Norfolk coast, near Sheringham.

The strong winds were felt across the UK on Monday as the remnants of Hurricane Katia reached our shores – mainly the north-west of England and Scotland – with winds of 80mph measured and total damage caused estimated at �100m.

Have you had a lucky escape from an accident? Call reporter David Freezer on 01603 772418 or email david.freezer@archant.co.uk